“No, it’s never late. I’m telling you now. And to do what you like, even less so.” If someone can affirm it without prevarication or stigmas it is Leoncio Olivares, an 83-year-old from Badalona who has enchanted social media by sharing the process to fulfill his dream of being a painter. With more than 57,000 followers and 1.9 million likes on TikTok, the octogenarian publishes his oil paintings on the account Leonciopintor since 2023.
On this profile, conceived and managed by his three grandchildren –Ainhoa, Sergio and David–, he publishes photos and videos of himself with his works, from imitations of famous paintings by painters like Rembrandt or Gustav Klimt to original portraits of locations in Badalona. The account has become so big that last March 14 Leoncio inaugurated his first exhibition in the building of the Raval de Badalona Neighborhood Association. “Some friends tell me: ‘If you continue like this, you’ll become famous’. But I always reply that I already am!”, he jokes.
From the brush to the paintbrush
Leoncio is part of those generations of Andalusians by birth who emigrated to Catalonia during Francoism. Originally from Malaga, he arrived in the 50s in Sant Adrià de Besòs, with little more than 14 years old. He remembers that he wanted to be a mechanic, but when he landed in the metropolis he worked as an errand boy in a grocery store near Barcelona's Gran Via. In fact, years later, when he finally managed to enter the workshop of the Reial Automòbil Club de Catalunya (RACC), he soon got tired of doing bodywork and car parts welding tasks.
It is for this reason that he went jumping from job to job until he ended up working with his father as a painter in a workshop in Badalona, a city where he moved. “He was one of those who did it to earn a living. Of those who painted walls, boards, objects and whatever was needed, just as I myself continued doing years later,” he recounts. However, once the workday was over, Leoncio's father changed the brush for the paintbrush to paint pictures during his free hours.
Just like him, Leoncio also had a great fascination for drawing and painting. He explains, for example, that the first time he felt attracted to the artistic world was at school, before leaving the classrooms and when he still lived in Andalusia. Specifically, he began to notice it in drawing classes, when the teacher commissioned him to make illustrations on themes linked to the regime's ideology, such as the three ships of Columbus's first voyage to America or the Virgin of Pilar.
Once in the metropolis, and when he was already working in the workshop, he continued learning painting in a self-taught way with the collections of books about great painters of history that could be bought on Sundays at the newsstand with the paper newspapers. With the birth of his first children at 26 years old, however, Leoncio put away the canvases and paints in the drawer to dedicate himself to the family.
Unearthing the passion
In 2020, things changed. During the coronavirus pandemic, Leoncio was admitted for two weeks to the hospital for a heart attack. Ironically, the bad fortune that took him to the UCI was also the trigger to revive his artistic side. During the admission, he became friends with another patient who had dedicated himself to decorating movie theater posters. "I showed him some of my paintings and he told me it was a shame I had let it go, and that made me think," he explains. "Then, shortly before leaving the hospital, I promised this man that I would resume painting, and so I did," he adds.
It was thus that this man from Badalona unearthed his hobby past 80 years old. Now, at home he has more than a hundred paintings made by him which, as he shows us, occupy all the walls and, even, are piled on the shelves or in plastic bags accumulated in his room. “At first I put them in frames, but now it's impossible”, he says.
During all these years, Leoncio has made countless replicas of The Sunflowers and of The Starry Night by Van Gogh –one of his great references–, as well as a whole series of paintings set in the municipality. Some of the most emblematic locations are the Pont del Petroli, Pep Ventura's castle or the Plaça de la Constitució. “I am making a whole collection of places in Badalona, which is what I like to do most and which I want to keep only for myself,” he exclaims while showing with a proud smile a version made of Casa Antoni Lleal.
The leap to viral status
The paintings that Leoncio does not keep, he sells them. In fact, he has a Wallapop account in which, right now, he has 93 works for sale. All cost 35 euros, and since he put them on the market, he says he has sold more than fifty. “The profit I get from it is not very big, because with what I earn I buy material again, and it is not cheap,” he points out. On the digital platform, Leoncio is categorized as a top profile. That is to say, he is recognized as a seller who offers “exceptional experiences” through “high ratings, reliable deliveries and quick responses,” the website assures.
The painter has sold more than fifty paintings through a Wallapop account
How is this impact explained, however? In large part, by social media. When Leoncio delved back into artistic painting, his grandchildren decided to document it on TikTok. They published photos and videos of the paintings, of their grandfather's story and of his passion for painting, and soon the account filled with views, with likes and with comments from people willing to buy his paintings.
The commotion was so important that, besides being interviewed by all kinds of media, the Residents' Association of Raval de Badalona proposed to Leoncio to hold his first exhibition at the entity's premises, and he selected about twenty paintings that are still exhibited there. According to him, the most notable fact of it all was the day of the inauguration, March 14 of this year. About thirty people attended –especially young people– who did not hesitate to queue at the doors of the premises on one of the rainiest days of the year, waiting for the exhibition to open. “It scares me to know all the people who are interested, but it also excites me a lot,” he concludes.
